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AN 



ORATION, 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

DIFFERENT REPUBLICAN SOCIETIES, 

AT THE THEATRE, ANTHONY-ST. NEW-YORK, 



ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 

JULY 4, I8I4. 
BY HENRY WHEATONy ESQ. 

NEW-YORK : 

PUBLISHED BY A. T. GOODRICH, 
HO. 124 BEOADWAY, CORNER OF CEDAR-STREET. 

J. SEYMOUR, PRINTER, 

^ V. 

1814. 



AN ORATION, 



FELLOW CITIZENS ! 
The importance of the occasion on which we 
are assembled, is enhanced by the wonderful 
events of the times in which we live. In an age 
of revolutions, We are celebrating the anniversary 
of the American revolution. The principles 
which produced that great event, after making al- 
most the circuit of the universe — shaking thrones 
— convulsing empires — and changing the face of 
Europe, have at last returned to repose in this 
their native seat, — from which alone they have 
never been exiled. These principles of civil and 
religious liberty were borne across the Atlantic 
by our forefathers, when driven from their native 
shores. These were their household gods — the 
dear companions of their flight — the precious le- 
gacy which they have left to us, their descendants. 
Whether exiled from Holland, from France, 
from Ireland, or from England ; — these were the 
guardian angels that guided their flight across 
the trackless ocean. Whether Protestants or 
Catholics, they were alike the victims of politi- 
cal and ecclesiafstical persecution — the ardent 
votaries of civil and religious freedom. It 
is the proud distinction of the people of this 



country, that they never were s/ave^—- never bow- 
ed the knee to mortal power — never extinguished 
the holy flame of liberty. 

Let not the feelings of exultation which ani- 
mate us on this occasion be imputed to national 
vanity. No ! they are the offspring of a nobler 
sentiment— the parents of great and glorious 
q,chievement. The consciousness that ours is the 
congenial soil of freedom, refreshes the patriotic 
ipind, purifies all its emotions, and inspires it 
with manly courage to defend from spoliation this 
magnificent heritage ; this temple of liberty ; 
this last asyUirn of oppressed humanity. The 
founders of the Republic trod in the steps of their 
fathers who colonized this new world. To pre- 
serve what the former had established was their 
end and aim. For this, they toiled, and fought, 
and bled. To attain this object, they dared to 
encounter Britain in the zenith of her power — to 
resist those prejudices which enforced obedience 
to her mandates as a duty of filial piety — and to 
rush into the arms of a rival nation, whom they 
had ever been taught to consider as her, and their, 
natural enemy. For this, they did not hesitate 
to denounce their king as a lyrince whose character 
was marked by every act which might define a ty-* 
rantj and as unfit to he the rider of a free people. 
For this they broke the ties that bound them to 
their British brethren, and declared that they must 
ucguiesce in the necessity which denounced their 



separation, and hold them hs they held the rest of 
mankind-' — enemies in war ; in peace, friends. 
These immortal heroes and sages resisted the 
first encroachments upon those rights which were 
equally theirs by the gift of the bountiful Creator, 
as by the chartered concessions of the mother 
country. They did not wait until their limbs 
were bound in cliains, and their necks bent to the 
yoke. " They augured mis-government at a dis- 
tance ; and snuft'ed the approach of tyranny in 
every tainted breeze." The religious faith which 
separates piety from patriotism was unknown to 
them. They disclaimed any paltry compromise 
of future oppression for present convenience. — 
They were not independent ; yet they scorned 
submission. They were not rich ; yet, poor as 
they were, all the wealth of the British exchequor 
could not buy them. They were destitute of re- 
venue — of fortifications — of an army-— of a navy — > 
of the munitions of war ; yet they dared to repel 
the attacks of their parent country, flushed with 
recent triumph over the house of Bourbon, proud 
of the achievements of Wolfe and of Chatham, 
and looking down from the eminence of her em- 
pire with scornful contempt upon their lowly con- 
dition. The war which was waired ascainst them 
by him who aimed to be their tyrant, was stamped 
with the most atrocious features. He brought 
on the inhabitants of their frontiers the merciless 
Indian savages, tvhose known rule of warfare is 



6 

an imdistinguishing destruction of all ages, sexes, 
and conditions of existence. ' ' Determined to keep 
open a market where men should be bought and 
sold, he prostituted his negative for suppressing 
every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain 
the execrable commerce in African slaves ; and 
then excited this very people to rise in arms 
among them, and to purchase that liberty of 
which he had deprived them, by murdering the 
people upon whom he also obtruded them ; thus 
paying off former crimes committed against the 
liberties of one people, with crimes which he 
urged them to commit against the lives of ano- 
ther." A parricidal party in the bosom of the 
land, the enemies of liberty and of their country, 
supported his pretensions. The horrors of 
savage, servile, and civil war, were accu- 
mulated. Yet these horrors, added to proscrip- 
tion and the peril of ignominious death, struck 
no ten or to the hearts of the men who had aspir- 
ed to achieve the independence of America. An- 
imated by the great example of their forefathers, 
and emulating the patriotism of Greece and 
Rome, they transcended both, and burst upon a 
degenerate aoe with all the virtue of ancient Re- 
publicanism, and all the splendour of modern 
tliivalry. 

The story of their achievements has been so 
often told, and is so well known to my auditors, 
that I should justly incur reproach were I here 



lo repeat the tale. It is the business of the histo- 
rian to fill up this canvass with a pencil worthy 
of the subject. It is the business of him who ad- 
dresses you on this occasion, to call to mind the 
importance of those principles which produced 
the war of the revolution ; to apply the bright ex- 
amples of public virtue, with which it abounds, to 
the exigencies of the present times ; and to show 
how great was the price our fathers paid for inde- 
pendence — how inestimable the value of the ac- 
quisition. 

The principles by which that war was pro- 
duced, howsoever they may have been abused and 
perverted in the recent revolutions of Europe ; 
howsoever they may have been corrupted by an 
unintelligible metaphysical j argon ; or derided by 
despots, who sought to destroy them — still remain 
indelibly engraven on the heart of man, and conse- 
crated by all the blood of all the martyrs who have 
died in their defence. That all men are horn free 
and equal ; that they a/re endowed by their Crea- 
tor with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights 
governments are instituted among men, subject to 
be altered, or abolished by the people, wheneve%' 
they become destructive of this end — are immortal 
and imperishable truths, which no abuse can 
change — ^no sophistry destroy— and no lapse of time 
obliterate. Upon these broad and solid foundations 
are built our constitutions. These form the comer- 
stone on which they rest, and the key-stone by whicli 



they are bound together. And shall we doubt tlie 
durability of the structure ? Has it not sheltered us 
from the storms and tempests of revolution ? Has 
it not protected us against foreign invasion and in- 
ternal faction 1 Has it not proved our impregna- 
ble citadel in war, and our inviolate temple in 
peace ? — The converse of these are the principles 
which consider governments and nations as the 
property of rulers, liable to be inherited and en- 
tailed — ^to be alienated and bequeathed, and 
held " in contempt of the choice of the people." 
They confound intelligent existences with stocks 
and stones — efface the image of God in man 
•—and deorade him below the level of the 
brutes : They are supported by fictions revolting 
to reason and common sense : The ubiquity, im- 
mortality, and irresponsibility of the king — That 
virtue and wisdom are heritable qualities — ^that 
one man is born a legislator and judge, and ano- 
ther a subject or slave. Such are the absurdities 
current in those regions whose wretched destiny 
it is to be swayed by these false principles of go- 
vernment. We may therefore thank "the hap- 
pier fortune of our stars" which has cast our lot in 
a land of light and liberty— where man walks 
forth in the original majesty of his nature — ^where 
no distinctions are known but those of talents, and 
virtue, and education. Indeed, the mass of pub- 
lic happiness which smiles over the surface of our 
territory, is the best eulogium that can be pro- 



nouncer! upon our political institutions. It speaks 
in language too eloquent not to persuade — ^too in- 
telliffible not to convince. Here ao^riculture, the 
ba.«i.s of national prosperity, reaps in security the 
fruits of its labour and skill, and the bounty of God 
is not blasted by the wickedness of man. Here, 
justice holds with steady hand her even balance, 
and strikes with equal rigour the rich and the poor, 
tempering with mercy her dispensations to all. 
Here the intonations of praise, and the incense of 
adoration, ascend frosi. temples in which the Su- 
preme Being is worshipped in an infinitely diver- 
sified variety of forms, all equally protected by the 
impartial tolerance of the law, and leptving open 
the road to honour and to office alike to every citi- 
zen professing them. Here, the press is truly 
" a chartered libertine," free as the air we 
breathe ; and if it sometimes wounds with its 
shafts, it bears healing on its wings : if it shakes 
with its thunders, it purifies the political atmo- 
sphere with its lightnings : if it carries with it a 
bane, it has also an antidote. 

Such is the fair fabric of our political society, 
and such the blessings it ditfuses. Are not its 
charms sufficient to attract our undivided love-^ 
to extinguish in our bosoms every foreign feeling 
and prejudice, and to purify and exalt the instinct 
of patriotism, by convincing us tliat our native 
land is not less an object of rational attachment 
than of natural affection ? If, in countries where 

2 



16 » 

man is for ever chained to the soil on which he 
grew, and with it handed over fro'ii one master to 
another, this affection still adheres to his heart> 
^nd nerves his arm to cleave down the invadex^ 
who comes to spoil the land that gave him birth — 
how much more lofty and bold must be the love of 
country implanted by nature in the human breast, 
nurtured by reason, and kept alive by every senti- 
ment that distinguishes the human species from 
the brute creation ! Open the volume of history, 
and conviction will flash upon your minds that the 
patriotism which is kindled by freedom is the pa- 
jent of godlike achievements. 

Bear witness, Greece, thy living page, 
Attest it many a deathless age ! 
VViiile kings in dusty darkness hid. 
Have left a nameless pyramid. 
Thy heroes — though the general doom 
Hath swept the column from their tombj 
A mightier monument command, 
The mountains of their native land ! 

It was this omnipotent hand which raised the tro- 
phies of Marathon and Thermopylae, of Salnmis 
and Platasa ; — which kindled anew the expiring 
llame of Polish independence to consume the bar- 
barians who came to extinguish it, and fired the 
hearts of that gallant nation to stab, with the 
courageous despair of the dying gladiator, its cruel 
antagonists ; — w^hicli revived the glorious field oj 
Morgarthen, and when men, professing to be free. 



u 

profaned the very temple of liberty, hurled veil 
geance upon them from the highest Alps. But 
Avhy do I recur to foreign and ancient examples ? 
Here — in this our native land, and within the re- 
collection of many now present, liberty has 
" enacted more wonders" still. Witness Trenton, 
Saratoga, and Yorktown ! O, immort d fields ! 
which drank the blood of freemen and of slaves 
commingled in the conflict — will ye not attest the 
irresistible force of the love of freedon ? 

The war in which we are now engaged, whilst 
it affords fresh proofs of the potent influence of 
liberty, has exposed the virtue of our people to 
severer trials than any they have been hitherto 
summoned to encounter. Though sanctioned 
and sanctified by every principle that can j ustify 
an appeal to arms, and ennobled by every consi- 
deration dear to a high-minded nation, it has been 
so chequered with alternate prosperous and ad- 
verse fortune, and the motives and causes in which 
it originated have been so discoloured by faction 
and prejudice, that we present to other countries 
the disgraceful spectacle of a divided people : 
Yet if we compare those motives and causes with 
the catalogue of wrongs enumerated in the De- 
claration of Independence, we shall find that the 
latter shrink into nothingness on comparison with 
those articulated in the declaration of war. 
Scarcely had the delusive truce of Amiens expir- 
ed, when the British encroachments on our neu- 



Iral rights commenced. The antiquated rule of 
tlie war of '56 was awakened from its long slum- 
ber, and let loose to prey upon our unsuspecting 
commerce ; a citizen murdered, and numberless 
other acts of violence committed witliin the sanc- 
tuary of our jurisdiction ; our property captured 
and coniiscuted under blockades no where exist- 
ing but on the paper by which tliey were pro- 
ch imed ; millions plundered by orders in council, 
issued upon the false p etext of retortion ; and, 
when reluctantly repealed, the principle on which 
they were founded reserved, to be again called 
into action at the arbitrary discretion of the Bri- 
tish govei nment ; all atonement for indemnifica- 
tion for these injuries refused ; and to complete 
the climax of our wrongs— thousands of our citizens 
constrained to enter the British naval service ; an 
emissary delegated to foment disaffection to the 
union ; and the Indian savages excited to take 
up arms against us. Under these accumulated 
aggressions, amicable negociation was protract- 
ed until the thread of diplomacy, spun out to an 
immeasurable length, exhausted the patience of 
the people, and until the bitter cup of humiliation 
had been drained to the dregs. The constituted 
autlioi ities then appealed to the last argument 
OF KINGS AND OF NATIONS. — They dcclai cd the 
existence of that war which had been so long 
waged against us, and authorized the sword to 
bediawn in our defence. Our countrymen had 



u 

so long been fascinated with the bland ii»hments of 
peace, that " grim visaged war" found tliem 
unprepared to encounter the hoirors of " his 
" wrinkled front." The military and civic vir-^ 
tues acquired in the revolution had declined. 
The gold which commerce so profusely showered 
upon our citizens, co> rupted, whilst it enriched. — • 
The heart of the mo chant was ossified with ava- 
rice. The cultivator regarded more the price of 
his produce than the inestimable value of nation- 
al honour. The repeal of the embargo laws, ex- 
torted from a panic struck legislature by the me- 
naces of a few states, diifused a torpor over the 
body-politic which a rested the free and whole- 
some flow of its life-giving stream, and cramped 
and controlled its every motion. The declara- 
tion of war was the first measure which contri- 
buted to give new tone to the nerves of the state, 
and to re-invigorate its limbs. It snatched ' ' a spark 
" from the altar of '76," and rekindled that spirit 
which sustained our former contest fo;' independ- 
ence. Was it not just ? Was it not necessary? 
Was it not expedient? These questions being 
answered in the affirmative, however humanity 
may weep over the calamities it must bring in its 
train — ^true wisdom will decide to encounter the 
wo. st of them, rather than entail upon posterity 
the countless evils of submission, and disgrace, 
and slavery. Unless, therefore, we are prepared 
to say that the independence which was achieved 



14 

at the expense of so much blood and treasure, is 
not worth preserving, and of being transmitted 
entire to our posterity, or that the aggressions of 
Britain do not vitally affect this independence; 
we mUwSt admit that the present war is at once 
just, and necessary, and expedient. Unless we 
are prepared to say that the war of the revolu- 
tion was unjust, unnecessary, and inexpedient—- 
ih:At our fathers would have shown more wis- 
dom in 

rather bearing those ills Ihey had. 



Thanjly to others that they knew not of— 

and that the stamp-tax or tea-tax were unworthy 
objects for which to involve the country in the 
liorrors of war — of civil war—then we must admit 
that the present contest is consecrated by every 
sanction which can give dignity, or add lustre to 
human exertion. If these were o]>jects worth 
contending for on account of their principle, 
what shall we say to the practice of impress- 
ments ? — by which a tribute, not of money, but 
blood, is exacted from a fee and independent 
nation, and an odious badge of slavery affixed to 
it, which any people would hardly bear from its 
own sovereign ! If the invasion of our rights by 
the British king and pavliament justified and re- 
quired such a resistance as was opposed to them 
by the war of the revolution, the same resistance 
is now justified and required against this fatal 



16 

blow aimed at the liberties of our seaf^irino* citi=. 
zens, and the essential attributes of our sove- 
reignty. 

If this be the true character of the war, what 
e{ 'ithets shall mark the conduct of those by whom 
it has ^ »een opposed '? I speak not of a constitu- 
tional and temperate opposition. The influence 
of that would have been salutary, stimulating the 
activity of the government, and infusing fresh 
vigor into its measuies. I speak of the opposi- 
tion which has discouraged and impeded the re- 
cruiting service — withheld from the Union the 
militia of the eastern states — organized a system 
of fraud and falsehood, by which the public mind 
has been perverted and poisoned — abused the 
liberty of the press by prostituting it in the ene- 
my's cause — and denounced the government and 
the law^s from the sacred desk, where " no sound 
" ought to be heard but the healing voice of 
" Christian charity." Nor has the range of this 
opposition been limited within these extensive 
bounds. It has overleaped all restraints — and 
laying aside even the aflectation of patriotism, re- 
ceived with cold indifference or sullen aversion, 
those glo ious triumphs which gladdened the 
hearts of the people. We have not yet forgotten, 
wdien the fate of our gallant Lawrence was stiU 
dubious, and every true Americ n awaited in 
breathless anxiety the tidings he dseaded to hear, 
how th® sweet odour of public praise due to his sue- 



1^ 

cessful valour, was withheld upon the hypoc itical 
pretext that it was " unbecoming a moial and reli- 
" gious people to express any approbation of ili- 
*' taryor naval exploits, not immediitely connected 
" w ith the defence of our sea-coast and soil." In 
vain did a virtuous minority " plead trumpet- 
'^' tongued against the deep damnation" of this 
deed. The i ecords of Massachusetts are stained 
by it with n indelible disgrace which not all the 
waters of the ocean that lashes her shores can 
purify. The cradle of Amei ican liberty has be- 
come the grave of Americ n honour ; and a lus- 
tration is necessary to w^ash away this fatal stain, 
and to appease the manes of the illustrious dead. 

Indignant shade ! on wild Canadians shore 

I see thee stand, whilst round the night-breeze moans. 

And pointing with thy shadowy hand, 

Thy voice exclaims — ungrateful land ! 

Thou shalt not have my bones ! 

Contrasted with this unnatural heartlessness is 
the rapturous joy with which the victories of the 
coalesced kings of Europe have been hailed by 
the sao-e men w ho could not find it consistent 
with their morality end religion to rejoice at " ex- 
ploits not immediately connected w^ith the defence 
of our sea-coast and soil' — but, who find it con- 
sistent enough with both, to rejoice at events 
w hich furnish our enemy with an immense dispo- 
sable force for the attack of our sea-coast and soil. 



Before we prepare to sympathize in this joy — let us 
see what are the fruits of these victories, and how 
distributed. 

Instead of collecting the scattered frag^ments of 
dilapidated Poland into one vast monument of 
expiatory justice, restoring and re-edifying the 
fabric of Polish liberty, and placing as its guar- 
dian a descendant of that Sobeiski, who saved 
the Austrian capital from Mohammedan spolia- 
tion, or the Poniatowsky, who poured out his 
truly noble blood at Leipsick — instead of this 
course, commanded equally by honour and by 
policy — the entire ruins of this once glorious 
country are reunited to reward the disinterested 
Deliverer of Europe, and form another diadem 
to glitter on that brow which is already circled 
with gems plundered from every bordering na- 
tion. Is it for this we are called upon to rejoice ? 
Or for the subjugation of the brave Norwegians, 
who have for ages repelled the rude wave of in- 
vasion that dashed against their bleak and barren 
shores, and driven from their iron frontier the 
ruthless foe ; — who are menaced with famine by 
" the bulwark of our holy religion," and with 
conquest by a neighbour whom neither they nor 
their government have injured or offended? Or is 
it for the restoration of the Stadtholder, not as first 
magistrate of the Republic, but as sovereign 
prince of the Netherlands, and uncontrolled by 
those prudent safeguards, which the founders of 

3 



18 

Batavian liberty had contrived, to restrain the ex- 
cess of executive power? Or for the fate of 
France, who after sacrificing her ruler as a pro- 
pitiation to her enemies, is stripped of her mari- 
time provinces,, and insulted by the triumphal 
entry of the betmyer and corrupter of Ireland 
into her capital? Or for the destiny of Venice, 
once the proud mistress of the Adriatic, but now 
swallowed up in the dominion of Austria, instead 
of being restored to her ancient senate — or of 
Saxony, whose aged monarch is dethroned as a 
punishment for his fidelity to the man wha 
made him a king, and whose people are passed 
under the Prussian yoke 1 

If we do not find matter for exultation in this 
contrast of profession and practice, in this wreck 
of principle and of justice ; perhaps we may seek 
for it in the cold calculations of self-interest, and 
in the share of benefits w^e are to receive from the 
lavish bounty of imperial and royal magna- 
nimity. How long will it continue to be our po- 
licy to look abroad for safety, instead of relying 
upon our internal resources? — to depend upon 
the friendship, justice, and good faith of kings 
and courts, instead of reposing upon the virtue 
and courage of our own people ? — to fight our 
battles in Europe, instead of making one vigour- 
ous and united eff'ort to sweep our enemies from 
this continent? How long shall we continue 
. bound, Ixion-like, to the wheel of European revo- 



19 

lutions ? When shall we avert our eyes from the 
old world, deformed as it is with the ruins of 
pubhc law and liberty, and turn them upon the 
new — the only refuge left for freedom ? But, if 
we cannot console ourselves with the hope that 
Britain's allies will interpose, we may possibly 
rely upon the generous policy of our enemy her- 
^self, whose character it is to war against the 
proud, and whose temper it may be to spare the 
submissive. Still less safety shall we find in this 
resource. That the British government most re- 
luctantly acknowledged our independence — that 
they have never lost sight of the policy of endea- 
vouring to recolonize us, by resorting to the arts 
of intrigue and seduction — of corruption and di- 
vision, are truths which will not be contested by 
those who are acquainted with human nature, or 
versed in the history of our international relations. 

th' unconquerable will, 

And study of revenge, immortal hale, 

still rankle in the breasts of the British court and 
ministry. The former, like all other courts, 
never forget, or acquiesce in, the loss of dominion ; 
whilst the latter are the true, direct, lineal de- 
scendants of the Butes and the Norths, who 
would have reduced America to the same state 
of vassalage to which their successors have 
reduced Ireland. That they should strive to 
partition the Union is not therdibre to be wonder- 
ed at. But that their infatuation should suggest 
visions of conquest and recolonization, may seera 



20 

to indicate a disorder of the imagination worthy 
of the pencil of Cervantes. Ridiculous as it may 
appear, however, we shall see this anticipation 
realized, unless the government and people arouse 
from their present apathy. Once dreaded, we 
are still hated as rivals in commerce, in manufac- 
tures, and in naval power. To extinguish for 
ever our rivalship in the ruins of our indepen- 
dence, is not less an object of British policy, than 
was the destruction of the military greatness, the 
ships, colonies, and commerce of imperial France. 
The sober freedom of our constitution is not less 
an object of aversion than was the dazzling splen- 
dour of Napoleon's despotism. Contracted as is 
the sphere within which our naval victories have 
been achieved, they contain the germ of a future 
greatness that may snatch the trident of Nep- 
tune from the sovereign of the seas. — The awful 
dangers of the crisis admonish us to Union. In 
that one word is contained a potent charm, that 
could we wear it near our hearts, would assure 
our safety in any perils that may await us. We 
must now gather the fair fruits of peace which 
hang on the precipice of degradation, beneath 
which the abyss yawns for our independence ; 
or we must grasp them on the field of battle 
where valour is the herald of victory. And why 
should we repine at this our destiny, since it was 
that of all free nations which have gone before 
us ? That liberty which was gained by arms, by 



21 

^st be maintained. Who is there base 
^wough to wish to survive his country's freedom ? 
to see this smihng abode of justice, liberty, and 
happine^, vs^here he had " garnereduphis heart," 
— ^bleeding beneath the conqueror's sword, or 
groaning under the conqueror's yoke — ^to behold 
the tombs of his ancestors overturned, the temples 
of his God defiled, the sanctuary of his household 
violated, and slavery the only portion of his chil- 
dren ? And is there any still baser wretch — 

■ a coward living' 

To die with lengthen'd shame, 

who would wish to purchase peace by a sacrifice 
of national interests, and rights, and honour ? to 
see us descend from that rank in the scale of na- 
tions to which the virtue and valour of our fa- 
thers exalted us ? If any such there be, let him 
stand 

A fixed figure for the time of scorn 
To point his slow unmoving finger at. 

War is an evil which has long been the re- 
proach of humanity, and the copious theme of 
declamation ; but unhappily, from a mysterious 
law of our nature, it is an e\il which must still be 
encountered. The visions of philanthropy, and 
the hopes of tlie Christian, have not been realized. 
Erunt vitia donee homines, is the sententious re- 
mark of a profound historian, the truth of which 
has been confirmed by the experience of ages. 
There will be vices, and consequently war, as long 



22 

«5 there are men. War, with all its horrors, is 
the price which nations must occasionally pa^ 
for theii- freedom and independence— the only 
alternative opposed to degradation and ruin ; biii 
like other evils which beset the chequered life of 
man, it has its uses, and in the eternal order of 
things, seems as necessary to the moral, as are 
storms and tempests to the natural world. " The 
doud-capt tower, the gorgeous palace"— may be 
laid in ruins, the valley inundated, and the oak 
rent from his native hills; but elasticity and 
health have been restored to a stagnant and pes- 
tilential atmosphere, and renovated nature goes 
on rejoicing in her course. It is in war that the 
best faculties of man have been developed, his 
noblest virtues invigorated, and that undefined 
piinciple of honour kept alive in his bosom, 
which is, with individuals and with nations, the 
surest safeguard to integrity, and the best title to 
respect. It is war " that makes ambition vir- 
tue." The effeminate poet may prate of "Ma- 
cedonia's madman," and the satirist of a degene- 
rate age may jeer at the hero of Carthage, with 
his — Idemcns et curve per Alpes—hni magnani- 
mous enterprise, persevering valour, and noble 
achievement, have secured them a niche in the 
temple of immortality; and the names of Alex- 
ander and of Hannibal, continue, in spite of de- 
traction, to command the admiration of men. 
From the matchless effulgence of their exploits, 



2-5 

the soldier catches a portion of " those more than 
mortal fires, which raise him far above the men 
of all other professions, and which, in the univer- 
sal sense of mankind, have even ranked him witli 
the Gods." If war in the abstract, is productive 
of good in regenerating and exalting the human 
character, when wagged in defence of freedom and 
independence, and in vindicating national rights 
from insult and rapacity — war is consecrated in 
the adoption ; and prosecuted by a people true to 
themselves will rarely fail of attaining the objects 
in view. For though disasters may await, clouds 
and darkness overhang the prospect — its ultimate 
eflfect will be to revive those principles which 
cannot readily lose their force — ^to render man 
not only deserving, but capable of the enjoyment 
of those rights for which he has contended. 

For freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won. 



FINIS. 



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^APR 89 

Is^ N. MANCHESTER, 
^^ INDIANA 46962 






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